Viking Fonts and Art Collection

For a PDF of art samples click HERE
Click any font to see a larger sample.

Vafthrudnir is a new, original font design which draws on the tradition of Germanic uncial and early gothic calligraphy. It is designed to be extra bold and somewhat rough-hewn, for use in title design, and features variant versions of many of the characters. Click here to download the working trial version of Vafthrudnir for either WINDOWS or MacOSOr you can purchase this font online and get it quickly by email, including all the alternate and additional characters – BUY IT NOW

In previous collections we’ve tried to preserve and give access to the graphic arts traditions of groups like the Celts and Russians. This collection does the same for Ancient Germanic culture. While we call this the Viking collection, it draws on a broader scope of early Germanic design, from the pre-Christian era through the early middle ages. The sources are not limited to Scandinavia, but include the breadth of German culture from the Franks to the Saxons to the Normans and beyond.

The main component of our first release in this series is our Viking fonts. These include both fonts based strictly on historic sources and fonts which are modern interpretations of the Germanic calligraphic and inscriptory tradition. The starting point of the collection are the Futhark and Surtur fonts. These are based on historic runic inscriptions. Futhark contains the traditional runic alphabet, while Surtur adapts the style of ancient runes to the Latin alphabet. Early Germanic calligraphy was heavily influenced by the lettering of Celtic missionaries. The Volund, Koch Gothic and Martel fonts represent this early medieval tradition. Volund is a pure Germanic uncial. Koch Gothic is a hybrid of Germanic uncial and later gothic lettering styles based on lettering by Rudolph Koch. Martel is a somewhat modernized interpretaion of Frankish lettering. Two other historical fonts are Ranegund which is based on Merovingian courthand lettering from the Viking period and Altenburg which is based on northern German lettering from that same period. For ;the necessary element of practicality and a bit of fun we’ve added in Taranis, Vafthrudnir and Walhall which are modern reinterpretations of early Germanic lettering. Walhall is based on lettering by Art Nouveau designer E. Doepler. Taranis is based on an early 20th century modernized Germanic uncial which has become particularly associated with the Vikings. Vafthrudnir is a new original font based on Germanic uncial and developed by Dave Nalle. Finally, to complete the collection we have a unique set of decorative initials based on designs by A. R. Bowker which draw on the serpentine wood carving traditions of the Vikings.

While the primary component of this collection is the fonts – four of them are entirely new releases (Volund, Koch Gothic, Vafthrudnir & Fafnir) – we’ve also added in a few bonus items to make the collection more varied and give a taste of what’s to come in the future. These include some selected borders, frames and emblems based on designs from antique illustrated books on Germanic mythology. These include both color and black and white decorative pieces, many of which are very striking.

As we did with our Celtic collection we plan to expand this collection in the future. We will eventually add more fonts and especially additional art, including a substantial selection of illustrations of Germanic mythology by artists like Arthur Rackham and N. C. Wyeth. Future expanded releases will be available to those who get this initial release at a special discounted upgrade price.

All of our Viking fonts are available individually, or you can get the full package with all the fonts plus the selected borders and decorations for just $59. The package is compatible with both Windows or MacOS, and includes both TrueType and Postscript fonts. .You can order our Viking collection directly from our online store – CLICK HERE TO ORDER

comments

I am a teacher looking for display lettering. Is it possible to down load specific letters of any of the Viking esque fonts please?

Many thanks

Dave on
March 27th, 2013

You can use some of them in our preview tool with the blue link to the left of the page. That would let you print out sample letters. But the best way is to pick the fonts you like, purchase them and print out letters as needed. The whole Viking package is quite cheap as a price per font.

New Font: San Lorenzo

Featured Font: Schoolhand

New Font: Holly Initials

Classic Font: Goodfellow

New Font: Vyones

New Font: Big Show

Classic Font: Gjallarhorn

New Font: Hadrianus Swash

Classic Font: Black Cow

New Font: Plymouth

Classic Font: Hadrianus

Classic Font: St. Nicholas

New Font: Caelian

Classic Font: Buccaneer

New Font: Vambrace

Classic Font: Scurlock Updated

New Font: Montgisard

Classic Font: Orlock

New Font: BigBlok

A great many years ago when working in game publishing I had a real fascination with doing titles in a strong, super-bold font called Bolt Bold. The truth is I rather overused it. In doing some research I find it on more than a dozen different game books I wrote in the early 80s, all quite collectable and out of print today.

Classic Font: Albemarle

New Font: Letterpress Gothic

Classic Font: Linthicum

New Font: Bergling

Classic Font: Stonecross

New Font: Ormandine

Classic Font: Rheingold

New Font: Aylward

Classic Font: Stuttgart Gothic

New Font: Andrano

Classic Font: Gaiseric

New Font: Antrobus

Classic Font: Brandywine

New Font: Airship

New Font: Borealis

New Font: Alexandrine

New Font: Madding

Classic Font: Moravia

Font Revision: Pontifica New

New Font: Changeling

Classic Font: Delaguerra

New Font: Krasny Mir

Classic Font: Joyeuse

New Font: Rockne

Classic Font: Structura

New Font: Rasael

Classic Font: Tuscarora

New Font: Foundry Ornament

Classic Font: Melusine

New Font: Agravain

Classic Font: Evadare Enhanced

New Font: Pencraft Initials

Classic Font: Windlass Enhanced

New Font: Amphitryon

Classic Font: Boswell

New Font: Walter Crane

St. Patrick’s Day Font Special: Spiral Initials

New Font: Art Deco Stencil

Classic Font: Acadian

New Font: Burd Ellen

Classic Font: Brigidis

New Font: Atkinson Boomtown

Classic Font: Jugendstil Kunsthand

New Font: Verne

New Font: Goldwork

New Font – Crane Gothic

Classic Font: Valdemar

New Font – Waldeck

Classic Font – Orpheus

New Font – Stampwork

New Font – Woburn Initials

New Font – Malvern

New Font: Valentin

Orford Font

New Font: Broadley

New Font: Posada

Tangle Font

New Font: Aventine

New Font: Groningen

Berenicia Font

BUY NOW
Cymbeline was one of our earliest font designs and has been fairly popular over the years, but some of the shortcomings of the font came to our attention after seeing the font on a book cover, so we decided to work it over and see if we could produce an improved version, while preserving the ca[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
Squiffy is a fun font. It has a background in arts and crafts style font design, but rather than the regular, architectural character forms and arrangements, the characters are wild and irregular and highly varied. There are two distinct versions of every character, with[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Grand Concours is based on lettering designed for a poster for the equestrian competition which was held at the Paris Hippodrome starting in the 1920s. The Grand Concours itself started in the 1860s, and is basically the French answer to an American rodeo.
The font is unusual [...]

Pyle Gothic is based on lettering designed by Howard Pyle, from his Adventures of Robin Hood and King Arthur and His Knights. It combines elements of calligraphy and a simulation of primitive printing techniques.The original characters were carved into wood blocks from which the black and white illustrations wit[...]

I don't know what came over me one Halloween, but I couldn't get the idea of dancing skeletons out of my head. The classic dance of death, but a bit more expressive, with the skeletons working together to form the letters of a font.
This resulted in the design for the Bonyeard font, where each letter is made [...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
Our original Folkard font has achieved near legendary status as one of the most interesting calligraphic title fonts of the contemporary era. It has been enormously popular and appeared on movie titles, book covers, t-shirts and games. However it is not the only [...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
There's a peculiar style of letters that seems to only show up on some signs and letterpress posters and it caught my eye when I saw it being used in the recent poster for the National Day of the American Cowboy. It's like a western style "egyptian" font with big [...]

Cavegirl is inspired by the genre of prehistoric epic films, the most memorable of which is One Million Years BC, starring the voluptuous Raquel Welch clad only in a legendary fur bikini.
The style of the font is typical of the lettering used in the posters and titles for these movies, with a rough and primiti[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
Script fonts can be a real challenge to design, especially when they are designed to have interconnecting characters which require exacting kerning and character positioning. When we first developed Orphiel we did a lot of kerning work on it, but despite a g[...]

Wolfram is a great example of early 20th century type design. It is bold and intended for use in posters and signage, but it has rough outlines for a mock antique look. It also has an unusually wide footprint for a very striking look.We originally produced Wolfram in the mid-90s, and it has been somewhat revise[...]

Sternhagen is a classically attractive font with a modernized gothic look which combines traditional elements from the high middle ages with a bit of Art Deco style. It will eventually be part of our Gothic Fonts Collections, but for now it is available singly.Sternhagen has a complete upper and lowercase charact[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Vie Moderne is a new font based on Art Deco lettering from the 1920s. It is typical of the French Art Deco influenced fonts which were featured in association with the International Exposition of Modern and Industrial Art in Paris in 1925.
Vie Moderne includes a full character s[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Tilbury is based on advertising lettering from the 1930s. It has a unique and stylish look reminiscent of a swashed italic brush script.
Tilbury includes a full character set with upper and lower case, numbers and punctuation. It has fully customized kerning and spacing as well.[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
Yancey is a new font based on a hand-lettered design by Samuel Welo in the late 1920s. It is very much in the tradition of Art Deco designs of that period and designed for decorative titles of poster design uses.
Yancey includes two versions of the character set,[...]

BUY NOW
TRY DEMO
Custom Preview
Lyceum has the stylized shape and look of a font designed for the program at a lecture hall, hence the name. It is super bold but remains highly readable at fairly small sized, though the contrasts are dramatic. It features only an uppercase characters set because the st[...]

Click any font to see a larger sample:
The culture of the east entices and allures. From the stony walls of Petra to the fabled spires of ancient Samarkand, the the legend of the great days of Caliphs, Wazirs and brave adventurers outshines the modern era of oil and petty tyrrany. W[more]

W. Heath Robinson was an artist of the first half of the 20th century who started his career as a book illustrator and produced many fantasy and fairytale illustrations, including illustrating Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. Later in his career he became a cartoonist producing humorous cartoons of fanciful weapons[more]

For years we've been adding to what has become an outstanding library of illustrated books by Arts and Crafts era designer Walter Crane, and all that work has come to fruition with the release of selected Walter Crane material in outstanding packages customized for contemporary designers who want to incorporate his uni[more]

BUY NOW
True Golden is a classic font based on a design by legendary arts and crafts designer and author William Morris. It is a special rendering of Morris' Golden type, based on printed samples rather than digitized steel type, preserving a more accurate representation of the look in print.
True[more]

William Morris was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement and closely involved with the Pre-Raphaelite artists of the mid-19th century. His ideal of integrating art, literature and graphic design inspired a generation of artists like Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Millais and Waterhouse. Morris was an artist, po[more]

From time to time I get to do some creative design work for political causes, especially in opposition to efforts to expand cybersurveillance and give the NSA access to your personal information on the internet.
This week is the drive to stop CISA, which would make Facebook, Google and even your ISP accomplices in t[more]

"We are saddened by the death of legendary type designer Hermann Zapf at the age of 96. His classic fonts like Optima, Palatino and Zapf Chancery set the standard for type design for the 20th century. Zapf's long career as designer and teacher was an inspiration to type designers around the world and made all of our l[more]

I was in Amy's Ice Cream with my kids when I noticed a very large man wearing a t-shirt for a local band called The Gourds, and much to my surprise I recognized my Gloriana font on the shirt.
I lacked the presence of mind to take a picture of the shirt on the spot, but when I got home I did a little research and d[more]